mewithoutYou – In Bloom

It’d be like trying to reimagine ‘Screamadelica’ or recording a tribute to ‘The Stone Roses’. An impossible task but that didn’t stop Reimagine Music from gathering acts of the calibre of the Album Leaf, Murder By Death and Maps & Atlasas to come forth and multiply on a one of a kind. The result is called ‘Come As You Are’ and while you can’t argue with its timing, given that ‘Nevermind’ is officially 20 years old, it will probably please and infuriate in equal measures. The successes arrive when the reinterpretations take the original songs in unexpected directions. Unfortunately the majority play it straight and end up with commendable but altogether colourless creation. Given that we’re living in an ‘entertain us’ generation that is probably enough for most but thankfully there are nuggets of brilliant light. The highlight is undoubtedly from Philadelphia band mewithoutYou who transform ‘In Bloom’ from white noise carnage to spoken word gentle jangle. This could have come from any one of the last 4 decades and it comes near to reaching parts not illuminated since 1991. KD